General Vezax is the twelfth boss encounter in Ulduar. He can be found in the Descent into Madness guarding the Prison of Yogg-Saron. Mana-based classes will have to deal with a lock on their regen, but will be able to restore it by destroying crystals that drop a residue on the floor. The Hard mode requires players not to break any of these crystals and not regen any mana.

Contents

25-man abilities

Melees for roughly 30-35k on plate.

Immune to taunt.

[Shadow Crash]ωϖ—Fires a shadow missile at a target, dealing 11,310 to 12,690 Shadow damage to all enemies near the impact point and knocking them away. After impact, leaves an energy field that lingers for 20 seconds, increasing magical damage dealt by 100%, increasing casting speed by 100%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 75%. He will not cast this on players within 15 yards of him.

[Searing Flames]ωϖ (2 seconds cast)—Deals 13,875 to 16,125 Fire damage to all enemies within 100 yards, superheating their armor and reducing its ability to protect them by 75% for 10 seconds. Interruptable

[Mark of the Faceless]ωϖ—Inflicts an ancient malediction on a target, siphoning 5,000 health every 1 second. from enemies near the target, for 10 seconds. Heals General Vezax for 100,000 per tick. He will not cast this on players within 15 yards of him. However, if there are not at least 9 people outside of 15 yards he will start casting it on players inside 15 yards melee and tank included.

[Corrupted Rage]ωϖ—Your insight into Shamanistic Rage is intensified but corrupted by General Vezax's Aura of Despair, hindering your ability to heal. This ability affects Shaman with the Shamanistic Rage talent, increasing the mana restored per proc by 100%, but reducing healing done by 90%.

Saronite Vapors - About every 30 seconds a green crystal called Saronite Vapors forms and floats around the room; each crystal has 25,200 hit point. A total of eight of spawns (the eighth spawning at around the fourth minute). When destroyed, a crystal drops a green puddle on the ground. Players who stand in this puddle will take resistible Shadow Damage, but also regenerate mana. A player standing in this puddle will gain a debuff called Saronite Vapors which will stack every 2 seconds.

Each stack increases the amount of damage taken and mana regenerated according to the following:

1 Stack 100 mana 200 Damage

2 Stacks 200 mana 400 Damage

3 Stacks 400 mana 800 Damage

4 Stacks 800 mana 1,600 Damage

5 Stacks 1,600 mana 3,200 Damage

6 Stacks 3,200 mana 6,400 Damage

7 Stacks 6,400 mana 12,800 Damage

8 Stacks 12,800 mana 25,600 Damage

n Stacks 100×2(n−1) mana 200×2(n−1) Damage

No known limit.

General Vezax's hard mode is initiated if you do not destroy any Saronite Vapors and allow six Saronite Vapors to spawn; once the sixth one spawns, they coalesce and become a Saronite Animus with 12.4M hit points.

[Profound Darkness]ωϖ—Inflicts 750 damage to all enemies, and increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per application. This emits from Saronite Animus.

10-man abilities

Melees for roughly 15-20k on plate.

Immune to taunt.

[Shadow Crash]ωϖ—Fires a shadow missile at a target, dealing 5,655 to 6,345 Shadow damage to all enemies near the impact point and knocking them away. After impact, leaves an energy field that lingers for 20 seconds, increasing magical damage dealt by 100%, increasing casting speed by 100%, reducing healing done by 75%, and reducing mana costs by 75%. He will not cast this on players within 15 yards of him.

[Searing Flames]ωϖ (2 seconds cast)—Deals 13,875 to 16,125 Fire damage to all enemies within 100 yards, superheating their armor and reducing its ability to protect them by 75% for 10 seconds. Interruptable, with a built in lockout on 10 man only.

[Mark of the Faceless]ωϖ—Inflicts an ancient malediction on a target, siphoning 5,000 health every 1 second. from enemies near the target, for 10 seconds. Heals General Vezax for 100,000 per tick. He will not cast this on players within 15 yards of him. However, if there are not at least 4 people outside of 15 yards he will start casting it on players inside 15 yards melee and tank included.

[Corrupted Rage]ωϖ—Your insight into Shamanistic Rage is intensified but corrupted by General Vezax's Aura of Despair, hindering your ability to heal. This ability affects Shaman with the Shamanistic Rage talent, increasing the mana restored per proc by 100%, but reducing healing done by 90%.

Saronite Vapors - About every 30 seconds a green crystal called Saronite Vapors forms and floats around the room; each crystal has 12,600 hit point. A total of eight of spawns (the eighth spawning at around the fourth minute). When destroyed, a crystal drops a green puddle on the ground. Players who stand in this puddle will take resistible Shadow Damage, but also regenerate mana. A player standing in this puddle will gain a debuff called Saronite Vapors which will stack every 2 seconds.

Each stack increases the amount of damage taken and mana regenerated according to the following:

1 Stack 100 mana 200 Damage

2 Stacks 200 mana 400 Damage

3 Stacks 400 mana 800 Damage

4 Stacks 800 mana 1,600 Damage

5 Stacks 1,600 mana 3,200 Damage

6 Stacks 3,200 mana 6,400 Damage

7 Stacks 6,400 mana 12,800 Damage

8 Stacks 12,800 mana 25,600 Damage

n Stacks 100×2(n−1) mana 200×2(n−1) Damage

No known limit.

General Vezax's Hardmode is initiated if you do not destroy any Saronite Vapors and allow six Saronite Vapors to spawn; once the sixth one spawns, they will coalesce and become a Saronite Animus with 2M hit points.

[Profound Darkness]ωϖ—Inflicts 750 damage to all enemies, and increases Shadow damage taken by 10% per application. This emits from Saronite Animus.

Strategy

Before pulling, assign casters in circle around General Vezax at a fair distance of each other in order to avoid spreading the Mark of the Faceless and too many (unreactive) people being hit by a Shadow Crash.

When the tank pulls, all healers must come in melee range of the boss (< 15 yards), in order not be concerned by the Mark of the Faceless and to leave the greatest space to the casters.

Searing Flames must always be interupted when General Vezax starts casting it.

When General Vezax casts Surge of darkness, the tank can stay where he stands, since Vezax's damages are healable.

After every Surge of darkness, a melee or unoccupied ranged dps should go to kill the closest Saronite Vapor. All healers stand in until they have 6-7 debuffs, then step out. If that first regen is not enough, they can step in the vapor for another 6-7 debuffs (once they have lost the first 6-7 debuffs).

If the next Saronite Vapor is not near the boss, the tank will have to move toward it. All the raid must proceed very carefully (healer and melee still in the 15 yards) and casters still spaced from one another.

Due to the use of the Energy Field left by a Shadow Crash, casters are less likely to have the need of a Saronite Vapor until the fourth or fifth Surge of darkness. When they will need it, while coming in melee range, they must be carefull not to be afflicted by a Mark of the Faceless. As long as DPS watch the aggro list, they can do damage continuously (the General is not tauntable, so overhauling the tank will usually result in the death of the careless DPS player and possibly the entire raid).

When a Shadow Crash heads toward a caster, he must move to avoid the AoE and then come back to stand in. In order to avoid spreading the Mark of the Faceless, only the caster targeted by a Shadow Crash should stand in it.

In order to save mana, casters would be advised to DPS only when they stand in the Energy Field left by a Shadow Crash. While this can be frustrating, this is the safer way to save the Saronite Vapors for the healers' need, besides the 10 minutes enrage allows to do it safely.

Also of note are Lifebloom and Power Word:Shield in conjunction with Shadow Crash puddles; since Power Word:Shield is an absorption effect, the absorbed amount is not reduced by Shadow Crash puddles but the mana cost is. Lifebloom's healing is reduced by the shadow crash puddles; however it is possible to regain mana when the stacks bloom if they were initially cast in a Shadow Crash puddle. It is worthwhile to note that Lifebloom blooms do restore less mana than usual to the casting druid.

Notes:

A Death Knight, whether tank or dps, is particularly useful in this fight since the Death Grip will limit the raid movement toward a far Saronite Vapor.

If you don't have at least four casters, some healers will have to stand beyond the 15 yards of the Mark of the Faceless, or else General Vezax will cast it on the melee dps or the tank.

Hard mode

To successfully perform this hard mode, players must fight Vezax for long enough without killing any Saronite Vapors that spawn, defeat the Saronite Animus that spawns, and then kill Vezax. To help somewhat with mana regen, a raid can stock up on [Fel Mana Potion], or alternatively [Dark Rune]. Ranged DPS will have to spare their mana for when they are on a shadow crash puddle to maximize the damage they can get with it. Aim towards getting General Vezax's health as low as possible without actually killing him. (Below 8,000,000 is doable). With higher levels of gear, it's entirely possible to kill Vezax BEFORE the Animus spawns- if this happens, the group will not be awarded achievements, and no hard-mode loot will drop.

The animus spawns at Vezax's starting position and must be picked up immediately by the offtank and kept in place so that melee does not have to move when switching targets at all. It will spam profound darkness every two seconds and melees for just about as much as Vezax without the periodic enrage) All DPS must switch to the Animus and kill it as quickly as possible. If the raid takes too long, Profound Darkness will eventually outdamage any possible healing and wipe the raid. Shadow Crashes will one-shot anybody that gets hit by them so do not lose focus. Since the fight has been patched, Vezax no longer casts searing flames while the animus is up.
Vezax will regain some health from Mark of the Faceless, so one player has to reapply a healing debuff onto him to minimize it such as an ArmsWarrior with Mortal Strike or a CombatRogue with Wound Poison on their main hand. (Wound Poison does proc on a Kick)

After the animus is dead, the stacks will still be applied and all that is left to be done is finish the home stretch of Vezax's health. Keep in mind that the Profound Darkness debuff is still applied and Shadow Crashes will kill anybody that does not avoid them. The hard part of the achievement is done so long as nobody in the raid does something foolish to cause a wipe.

Watcher Tyr

For a time, it has been suggested that Tyr may have mutated into General Vezax under the influence of Yogg-Saron.[1] This was however proven false as developers stated that Tyr was not in Ulduar when Yogg-Saron was defeated.[2]

Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom

General Vezax, or a likeness of him, appears in Ahn'kahet briefly, in the first circular pool encountered (just before choosing left or right to get to Elder Nadox), a face similar to that of Vezax flashes up in the pool.

Patch changes

Hotfix (2009-08-08): "General Vezax will now cast Shadow Crash slightly less frequently. He will also refrain from casting Searing Flames multiple times in succession."

Hotfix (2009-05-19): "General Vezax now does 10% less melee damage in normal difficulty."

Hotfix (2009-05-04): "[A]ll of the humanoids in General Vezax's room are no longer immune to stuns, the Faceless Horrors will only go immune and summon Void Beasts once instead of 3 times, and the damage done when a Clockwork Sapper explodes has been significantly reduced."

Hotfix (2009-04-28): "The aggro radius for several trash mobs before General Vezax has been reduced and the health has been reduced on Void Beasts and Faceless Horrors."